Overview

This page provides a list of updates made to each of the templates and the style manual. Templates are grouped by type rather than word processor and updates are listed beginning with the most recent. Click a link below to scroll the page to the corresponding content.

Word Research Paper Template

3/1/2016 Update: Set First-Level and Second-Level Subheading paragraph spacing to 12pt "Before" the text and "Line spacing" to 24pt. This fixes the problem with subheadings clipping off the lowest portion of letters with descenders.

9/22/2015 Update: Set Block Quotation paragraph style to 0pt "After."

9/26/2014 Update: Corrected issue with Third-Level Subheading preventing that paragraph from spanning pages by turning off 'Widow/Orphan control,' 'Keep lines together,' and 'Keep with next' for that style. Space before Third-Level Subheading was corrected to 12pt to result in 2 single-spaced lines above when paired with the 24pt font.

9/23/2014 Update: Turned off Word's 'Auto Update' style feature which was causing several problems. Updated title page field to allow email address. Added SBL BibLit to Quick Styles set, and updated Greek and Hebrew discussion to match the style manual requirements. Corrected margins for 1-line, 2-line, and 3(+)-line titles on title page. Corrected margin for title on first page of text and bibliography title. Other minor changes unrelated to format.

4/3/2013 Update: Edited First Page of Text Title style to restrict title to 5 inch length maximum per line.

3/21/2013 Update: Created three different Title Page Title styles, one for a 1 line title, one for a 2 line title, and one for a 3 or 4 line title. Edited the first-level subheading, 1.25 margins added "Before text" and "After text." For the second Level subheading, 3.5 "After text."

2/18/2013 Update: The "Hebrew Style" was edited to select "SBL Hebrew" as the CTL font.

2/6/2013 Update: "Hebrew," "Greek," and "English" character styles were added to facilitate typing in these languages.

10/31/2012 Update: Deleted the space between the footnote number at the bottom of the page and footnote text. A note clarifying the need to manually remove this space each time a footnote is created was added.

10/1/2012 Update: Placeholder text font corrected to 12 point font. Comments updated to direct to more appropriate areas in the Manual of Style.

LibreOffice Research Paper Template

9/23/2014 Update: Significant line spacing corrections to many styles: 1-line, 2-line, & 3(+)-line titles on title page; first page title; body of text; block quotation; first, second, & third-level subheadings; bibliography; bibliography title; and footnotes. Most of these involved correcting the 0.20 inch used for single-spacing to 0.17 inch or the 0.40 inch used for double-spacing to 0.33 inch. Footnotes inserted using Zotero now superscript and all footnotes now begin at 0.7 inch. Page numbers now appear on every page rather than every other page. Font discussion for Greek and Hebrew now matches the style manual in requiring SBL BibLit. Other minor changes unrelated to format.

7/30/2014 Update: The curved single quote now automatically replaces the straight single quote.

4/3/2013 Update: The CTL font associated with the Hebrew character style changed from Mangal to SBL Hebrew.

3/26/2013 Update: Adjusted the Title Page Title styles for fixed line spacing 0.4.

3/21/2013 Update: Created three different Title Page Title styles, one for a 1 line title, one for a 2 line title, and one for a 3 or 4 line title. Edited the first- and second-level subheadings for 0.4 "Above Line" spacing and 0.2 "Fixed" line spacing. For the first-level subheading, 1.25 margins added "Before text" and "After text." For the second Level subheading, 3.5 "After text." "Hebrew," "Greek," and "English" character styles were added to facilitate typing in these languages.

Mellel Research Paper Template

3/27/2013 Update: Footnote justification changed from full to left justification.

7/1/2013 Update: The SBTS Research Style Sets were added to the .zip file to ensure full functionality of the template.

Book Review Templates

Word Book Review Template

9/26/2014 Update: Corrected top margin for 1-line, 2-line, and 3(+)-line titles on title page by setting 60pt, 36pt, & 24pt before each respectively. Set top margin for "First Page of Text Title" to 82pt before. Turned off Word's ability to auto update the styles. Changed space before Third-Level Subheading to 12pt and corrected the issue preventing that paragraph from spanning pages by turned on 'Widow/Orphan control' and turning off both 'Keep lines together' and 'Keep with next' for that style. Updated title page field to allow email address. Other minor changes unrelated to format.

3/21/2013 Update: Created three different Title Page Title styles, one for a 1 line title, one for a 2 line title, and one for a 3 or 4 line title. Edited the first-level subheading, 1.25 margins added "Before text" and "After text." For the second Level subheading, 3.5 "After text."

11/27/2012 Update: Deleted an extra space between "the" and "Requirements" on the title page. Removed comma after the name in the bibliography entry at the beginning of the paper and added terminal puntuation.

10/31/2012 Update: Deleted the space between the footnote number at the bottom of the page and footnote text. A note clarifying the need to manually remove this space each time a footnote is created was added.

10/15/2012 Update: Fixed first page of text page number from 2 to 1.

LibreOffice Book Review Template

9/26/2014 Update: Significant line spacing corrections to many styles: 1-line, 2-line, & 3(+)-line titles on title page; first page title; body of text; block quotation; first, second, & third-level subheadings; and footnotes. Most of these involved correcting the 0.20 inch used for single-spacing to 0.17 inch or the 0.40 inch used for double-spacing to 0.33 inch. Footnotes now start at 0.7 inch. Page numbers now appear on every page rather than every other page. Other minor changes unrelated to format.

3/21/2013 Update: Created three different Title Page Title styles, one for a 1 line title, one for a 2 line title, and one for a 3 or 4 line title. Edited the first- and second-level subheadings for 0.4 "Above Line" spacing and 0.2 "Fixed" line spacing. For the first-level subheading, 1.25 margins added "Before text" and "After text." For the second Level subheading, 3.5 "After text."

11/27/2012 Update: Removed comma after the name in the bibliography entry at the beginning of the paper and added terminal punctuation.

11/7/2012 Update: Added a few explanitory notes to aid in using the template.

Mellel Book Review Template

3/27/2013 Update: Footnote justification changed from full to left justification.

7/1/2013 Update: The SBTS Book Review Style Sets were added to the .zip file to ensure full functionality of the template.

Dissertation Templates

Word Dissertation Template

7/26/2016 Update: Updated the text on the dedication page. No formatting changes.

6/30/2016 Update: Replaced the page breaks between List of Abbreviations, List of Tables, List of Figures, and Preface pages with section breaks.

5/20/2016 Update: Updated (converted) the template for Word 2016. Set First-Level and Second-Level Subheading paragraph spacing to 12pt "Before" the text and "Line spacing" to 24pt. This fixes the problem with subheadings clipping off the lowest portion of letters with descenders.

6/15/2015 Update: Removed the extra space before the word "Requirements" on the title page. Turned off "Keep with next" on the Bibliography paragraph style.

3/23/2015 Update: Removed a blank line between Abstract (HEADING) and Abstract (TITLE). Set ABSTRACT TITLE style paragraph spacing to 12pt "before" and 24pt "after." Removed tall blank text line between the dissertation title and the student name on the Abstract page as well as a blank line below the supervisor's name.

2/2/2015 Update: Removed the blank line from below the page numbers in the footer beginning at page 1. The blank line caused the page numbers to be slightly higher off the bottom of the page than the Roman numeral page numbers.

1/23/2015 Update: Set the space above the top signature line on the Approval Page to 4 blank lines to match the other signature lines.

1/7/2015 Update: Removed all text boxes from the title page by pasting the title page of the Research Paper Template for Word in their place and then correcting the text.

12/18/2014 Update: Set font "Character Spacing" to "Normal" for List of Abbreviations style, correcting the problem with the letters appearing too close together. Added a note to the Table of Contents page with brief instructions on including additional levels of subheadings in the table.

12/3/2014 Update: On the Table of Contents (TOC) page, the position of the Header was set to 0.7" "from top" (like the other pages), correcting what appeared to be a top margin problem. BIBLIOGRAPHY (the "Bibliography Heading" style) was added to the TOC by setting it to level "1" in the TOC options menu. Set Title No TOC and Title, Preliminary Pages Title styles spacing both to 24p "After" so the word "Page" over the page number in the right hand column actually began on the 3rd line below the page headings. Removed the empty line on the TOC, List of Tables, and List of Figures pages that was between the word "Page" and the first entry in the list below, leaving only a single (12pt) line between "Page" and the first entry. Added a comment to the TOC page about breaking long chapter titles. Set the Abstract Title style paragraph indentions to 0.75" on both left and right, so the dissertation title could actually match the title on the title page. Set the "Footnote continuation separator" line to the same length as the regular "Footnote separator" line and place a blank 10pt line below it (must be done in "Draft View"). Prevented individual bibliography entries from splitting across pages by turning on "Keep lines together" for the Bibliography style. Corrected the style manual references in comments on the Appendix, Bibliography, Abstract, and Vita pages.

On the LIST OF TABLES, LIST OF FIGURES, and BIBLIOGRAPHY pages a blank line was inserted below the last entry on each of those pages. That blank line was then selected and changed to "Normal" style. Essentially, manual page breaks in Word inherit some style from the paragraph style immediately preceding the break which then throws the space at the top of the following page. The easiest fix was to insert a line with a different paragraph style just before the page break. Doing this on each of these three pages will correct slightly off spacing at the top of the pages that follow these three.

11/24/2014 Update: Set spacing "Before" Title Page Title 1 Line, 2 Line, and 3(+) Line to 60pt, 36pt, and 12pt respectively. Set Chapter Title style to 12pt line spacing and 12pt "Before." Set Approval Title to 12pt line spacing and 12pt "After." Set Abstract Heading style to 72pt "Before," and Bibliography Heading style line spacing to 12pt. Set List of Abbreviations style to 12pt "Before" and 12pt line spacing. Set Footnote Text to 0pt "Before," 10pt "After" (to provide space between the footnote text and page number), and 10pt line spacing. Inserted a blank between the footnote separator and the footnotes (needed after updating the Footnote Text style). Turned off both "Keep lines together" and "Keep with next" options for the Third-level Subheading that prevented the first paragraph of a third-level subheading from spanning pages. Replaced SBL Greek and Hebrew styles with SBL BibLit style. Created Approval Work Title style for the dissertation title on the Approval Page to correct space above it. Corrected the style manual reference on the Abstract page. Updated the text addressing biblical languages in the template to reflect the style manual requirements. A few minor punctuation and spelling corrections.

7/2/2013 Update: Replaced title box with three title styles to conform to other templates.

2/6/2013 Update: Added automatically compiled TOC. Updated fonts for Hebrew and Greek styles to conform to the 4.0.2 edition of the style manual. Made minor updates to align the Word dissertation template with the OOo template.

10/31/2012 Update: Deleted the space between the footnote number at the bottom of the page and footnote text. A note clarifying the need to manually remove this space each time a footnote is created was added.

9/14/2012 Update: Footnote numbering now automatically restarts after each section break. To fix an older version of the template, click inside any footnote in your document, right click, select "Note Options," go to "Numbering:" and select "Restart after each section," go to "Apply changes to:" and select "Whole document," now click "Apply."

LibreOffice Dissertation Template

7/26/2016 Update: Updated the text on the dedication page. No formatting changes.

3/23/2015 Update: Added 1 blank line above the supervisor's name on the Approval Page. Removed the blank line below the supervisor's name on the Abstract Page.

11/26/2014 Update: Changed text inside the template referencing Greek and Hebrew fonts to reflect the current requirement of SBL BibLit. Updated style manual reference on the Abstract page to 6.14. Minor punctuation added to the Vita page. Created a new style Aprroval Work Title from the dissertation title on the Approval Sheet and set 0.17" "Above paragraph" and 0.33" "Fixed" line spacing. Created new style from the author name on the Approval Sheet titled Approval Sheet Name and set 0.5" "Above paragraph" and "Fixed" line spacing to 0.17".Many changes correcting double-space from 0.4" to 0.33" and single-space (12pt font) from 0.2" to 0.17" and similar space issues above and below styles. For clarity, these are listed with style name and follwed by the changes made:

Title Page Title 1 Line - 0.86" "Above paragraph" and "Fixed" line spacing to 0.33"

Title Page Title 2 Line - 0.51" "Above paragraph" and "Fixed" line spacing to 0.33"

Title Page Title 3(+) Line - 0.18" "Above paragraph" and "Fixed" line spacing to 0.33"

3/21/2013 Update: Created three different Title Page Title styles, one for a 1 line title, one for a 2 line title, and one for a 3 or 4 line title. Edited the first- and second-level subheadings for 0.4 "Above Line" spacing and 0.2 "Fixed" line spacing. For the first-level subheading, 1.0 margins added "Before text" and "After text." For the second Level subheading, 3.0 "After text." "Hebrew," "Greek," and "English" character styles were added to facilitate typing in these languages.

Mellel Dissertation Template

7/1/2013 Update: The SBTS Dissertation Style Sets were added to the .zip file to ensure full functionality of the template.

9/25/2016 Update: Updating a Mellel style set is relatively easy: Close Mellel. Drag the existing "SBTS Dissertation.sset" file out of the Style Sets folder to the trash. Drag the new "SBTS Dissertation.sset" file into the Style Sets folder. Open the template (or dissertation). From the Style menu at the top of the screen, choose the SBTS Dissertation style [image]. In the popup box that appears, select "Match by style name" [image]. Then the update is complete. Below, the changes for the style set are listed:

Split heading style — changed from .3" to .167" below

Table of contents levels 1, 2, 3, 4 — changed from .3" to .167" below

Approval sheet — changed from .5" to .167" below

Approval sheet title and name — changed to 0.0" below and units to 24pt

Preliminary page title — changed from .6" to .333" below

Chapter number — changed to 0.0" below and line spacing units to 12pt

Chapter title — changed to 0.0" above, .167" below, and line spacing units to 12pt

Appendix number — changed from .2" to .167" below and line spacing units to 12pt

Bibliography title — changed from .2" to .333" below and line spacing units to 12pt

Bibliography — changed from .14" to .167" below

Concluding pages title — changed from .2" to .167" below and line spacing units to 12pt

Concluding pages centered — changed from .2" to 0.0" above, from .2" to .333" below, and line spacing units to 12pt

Outside the .sset file: Changed the note attribute (menu bar Insert> Edit note attributes) to 0.0" space above and .139" space below. On the Preface page, changed the blank line between the preface and name to 12pts.

Southern Seminary Manual of Style

3/13/2014 Update: 4.0.4

1) While Times New Roman remains an optional font choice for English Language papers, SBL BibLit is now the standard font preference for all writing projects at SBTS for English, Hebrew, and Greek text. 2) Title pages of Research Paper and Book Reviews must now include the student email address in place of the student mail box.

8/16/2013 Update: 4.0.3

1) Color is now permitted under certain circumstances. 2) Specifications for five levels of subheading added. 3) Updated refences and links to Turabian (8th edition) and LibreOffice.